Hiring increased in April, and the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in a decade, signs the U.S. economy is rebounding after a lackluster winter.
The unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage point to 4.4% in April, matching the low point reached in the last economic expansion in May 2007, not long before a brewing housing bust sent the economy and financial system into a decade long crisis and recovery.
…
The Labor Department reported that businesses added 211,000 jobs in April, after adding just 79,000 jobs the month before. The pickup in hiring underpinned projections that economic growth is set for an upturn. Output grew at an annual rate of just 0.7% in the first quarter. After seeing the latest numbers, economists at forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers increased their projection for second-quarter growth to 4%.
Meanwhile, in the frozen north:
Canada added 3,200 jobs during the month, Statistics Canada reported in Ottawa, less than the 10,000 employment gain forecast by economists. The pace of annual wage rate increases fell to 0.7 percent in April, the lowest in records dating back to the late 1990s.
Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 6.5 percent, the lowest since October 2008, but this reflects the departure of 45,500 people from the labor force. About half of those were youth, meaning many young people looking for work have stopped looking.
…
- •The nation lost 31,200 full-time jobs, and gained 34,300 part-time jobs during the month.
- •All the job gains were self-employed and public sector. Canada lost 50,500 jobs in the private sector.
But we are assured by the Left Coast that not only do we not need any foreign capital, we don’t need any tourism revenue either. All we need is spliffs, man.
Vancouver is preparing to impose more restrictions on Airbnb Inc. and other short-term rental operators as Canada’s priciest housing market seeks to ease its near-zero supply of homes to let.
In more cheerful news, battery improvements are boosting productivity all over!
Edison International has found what every electric utility wants in this time of sputtering demand: a new source of revenue.
By adding battery storage to a quick-start natural gas turbine, General Electric Co. made a hybrid power plant that allows Edison to collect payments for keeping the generator ready to instantly supply electricity when California’s grid needs it, 24 hours a day.
That’s a market that peaker plants, which are needed only when demand surges in hot weather, haven’t been able to access unless they continuously burned gas to keep the turbine spinning. The hybrid units can provide Edison’s Southern California Edison utility as much as $1.4 million a year in revenue that similar plants without batteries miss out on, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 1.2246 % | 2,167.9 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 1.2246 % | 3,977.9 |
| Floater | 3.52 % | 3.66 % | 51,928 | 18.13 | 4 | 1.2246 % | 2,292.5 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1331 % | 3,032.6 |
| SplitShare | 4.69 % | 4.30 % | 67,302 | 1.60 | 5 | 0.1331 % | 3,621.6 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1331 % | 2,825.7 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.32 % | -3.20 % | 72,391 | 0.09 | 22 | -0.0341 % | 2,782.9 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.08 % | 5.09 % | 108,332 | 15.32 | 14 | 0.1149 % | 3,010.8 |
| FixedReset | 4.46 % | 4.08 % | 221,592 | 6.55 | 94 | -0.0742 % | 2,321.3 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.00 % | 4.91 % | 147,593 | 2.67 | 31 | 0.0289 % | 2,890.9 |
| FloatingReset | 2.51 % | 3.03 % | 51,431 | 4.48 | 10 | -0.0373 % | 2,531.8 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| PWF.PR.P | FixedReset | -1.30 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 15.94 Evaluated at bid price : 15.94 Bid-YTW : 4.06 % |
| MFC.PR.J | FixedReset | -1.16 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 22.25 Bid-YTW : 5.56 % |
| TRP.PR.H | FloatingReset | -1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 13.56 Evaluated at bid price : 13.56 Bid-YTW : 3.38 % |
| BAM.PR.C | Floater | 1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 13.00 Evaluated at bid price : 13.00 Bid-YTW : 3.66 % |
| TRP.PR.B | FixedReset | 1.12 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 14.40 Evaluated at bid price : 14.40 Bid-YTW : 4.02 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | 1.17 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 12.92 Evaluated at bid price : 12.92 Bid-YTW : 3.69 % |
| IFC.PR.A | FixedReset | 1.29 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 18.05 Bid-YTW : 7.82 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | 1.78 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 14.86 Evaluated at bid price : 14.86 Bid-YTW : 3.17 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BMO.PR.M | FixedReset | 191,500 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.60 Bid-YTW : 3.21 % |
| BMO.PR.C | FixedReset | 158,648 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2022-05-25 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.67 Bid-YTW : 4.08 % |
| MFC.PR.R | FixedReset | 119,495 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2022-03-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.94 Bid-YTW : 4.15 % |
| TD.PF.C | FixedReset | 58,500 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 21.07 Evaluated at bid price : 21.07 Bid-YTW : 4.01 % |
| BNS.PR.Q | FixedReset | 53,220 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.10 Bid-YTW : 2.91 % |
| TD.PF.D | FixedReset | 47,400 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-05 Maturity Price : 22.29 Evaluated at bid price : 22.81 Bid-YTW : 4.14 % |
| There were 20 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| TD.PF.D | FixedReset | Quote: 22.81 – 23.45 Spot Rate : 0.6400 Average : 0.3613 YTW SCENARIO |
| MFC.PR.F | FixedReset | Quote: 15.36 – 15.71 Spot Rate : 0.3500 Average : 0.2317 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.B | Floater | Quote: 12.95 – 13.33 Spot Rate : 0.3800 Average : 0.2743 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.P | FixedReset | Quote: 15.94 – 16.24 Spot Rate : 0.3000 Average : 0.2107 YTW SCENARIO |
| NA.PR.X | FixedReset | Quote: 26.76 – 27.00 Spot Rate : 0.2400 Average : 0.1565 YTW SCENARIO |
| CU.PR.I | FixedReset | Quote: 26.21 – 26.52 Spot Rate : 0.3100 Average : 0.2275 YTW SCENARIO |